Clay Petals
by Finalement
Summary: In a world where seeing an enemy any more than once could mean almost certain death, what happens when your 'dead' enemy happens to reappear before your eyes? DeidaraxSakura
1. An Introduction

**Clay Petals**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own _Naruto _or its characters, nor am I gaining any profit for putting them in this story. They all belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

**Author's Note: **Challenge by Rune-Spirit, just so you know. Takes place after Chapter 317, so spoilers if you haven't read that far.

Reviewing is nice. Please consider it if you read the story.

It had become an established fact in most shinobi villages across Japan, that if you saw a person dressed plainly in a black cloak dotted with red clouds, you were to run as quickly as you could in the opposite direction. Such dressed people were known as S-Class criminals from the organization Akatsuki. They had been rejected from their respective villages due to acts against the Kage, and were known to be as dangerous as people come.

Deidara was one of these people.

Though he was not an intimidating man by looks—what with bright blond hair in a high ponytail that seemed to have the bad habit of covering his left 'eye', and a small frame at only 5'9"—he was slightly less eccentric and far more dangerous by nature. He was probably known as one of the more playful villains of the world, though with a bit of a destructive sense of humor.

He had a bit of a love for making things explode.

Claiming that explosions were his 'art', Deidara was a formidable opponent in both physical and verbal combat; as he would threaten to blow a person to pieces if they so much as disagreed with him. It wasn't very often that he did this, however, as he was rarely around any people to argue with in the first place. Therefore, the only person that he had talked to besides Tobi had been his old partner.

Deidara's old partner—meaning the one before Tobi—had been both an 'art rival' and the closest thing Deidara had had to a real friend. Sasori might've always disagreed with him simply because Sasori was at least a good thirty years older than the blond, and therefore figured he should know more, or he might've felt that he had nothing better to do.

Whatever the case, Deidara had always felt that Sasori hadn't totally cared about what had happened in their arguments, and thus felt hardly any regrets whenever he ended one. Deidara didn't mind this either; as it made him feel rather like he'd 'won' the argument in a sense. This constantly positive ending to their bickering rounds had gradually improved their relationship, to the point that they argued only because they could.

It was just about at this time when Sasori was killed.

Deidara had seen his partner's opponents; a strangely dressed girl with pastel pink hair that just barely graced her exposed shoulders, and an elderly woman who was a good deal shorter and more clothed. The woman had seemed faintly familiar, but Deidara was quite confident that his partner would be able to handle them both with incredible ease. Needless to say, he was shocked to the bone when all he was able to find was the puppet body of Sasori, and the body of the old woman a little ways off.

Where was the girl with the pink hair?

The question had haunted the blond Akatsuki's mind until this day, a few months later, as to how this one girl was able to survive the wrath of Sasori. It was beginning to hurt Deidara's mind not to know. He simply _had _to find out!

Today, he was finally going to get that answer he wanted so badly.

After practically forcing Tobi to go back with the Sanbi's chakra to the organization's headquarters, Deidara found himself attempting to recall the village that the pink-haired girl was from. Her forehead protector that he'd been able to glimpse as he flew from the scene had had a symbol that he had seen before on the forehead of a fellow Akatsuki.

Konoha! That girl was from Konoha!

'How convenient,' Deidara thought to himself with a small smirk on his lips, 'If she's from Konoha, she's probably within this Fire Country's borders at this very moment. Now if only I knew which direction Konoha was…'

In said Hidden Leaf Village, Haruno Sakura strode home along a dirt road, arms full of groceries for her mother and brother. The subject that occupied her fifteen-year-old mind, as it had often been three years ago, was the rather infamous Uchiha Sasuke, who she used to obsess over on a regular basis. Used to, meaning back when he was still around.

Many attempts had been made to bring Sasuke back to the Village, but none had been successful. Orochimaru seemed quite intent on keeping Sasuke by his side. Thus, since Sasuke himself felt no desire to leave, Konoha had remained unable to get him to return.

At first, Sakura had been had been utterly miserable, to the point of depression, that he had chosen power over both her and Naruto. However, as time wore on, Sakura had begun to accept the fact that he wasn't going to come back before he killed his brother, Uchiha Itachi. It didn't completely soothe the pain, but it did help her in her times of despair, that one day, he very well _might _come back, just many years in the future.

Now, Sakura was starting to feel that she had chosen to love the wrong type of person. When she thought about it, she realized that she should've gone with someone who spent less time brooding, and more time just being exciting. A fun person. Someone more dynamic. More… explosive. She found herself giggling at that thought.

The word 'explode' had reminded her of that one guy that Naruto had said he'd fought when the remainder of Cell Seven had gone on a mission to save Gaara from Akatsuki. Naruto had claimed that his opponent, as a final resort to defeat himself and Kakashi, had blown himself to pieces. Thankfully, the attempt failed, but it still entertained Sakura with the thought of someone just blowing up.

That was the last battle she'd had before she had gone to try and rescue Sasuke with Naruto, Yamato, and Sai. She sighed.

'I have such a one-track mind,' Sakura thought to herself as she arrived at her smaller house at the edge of the village, 'Everything I think about leads me right back to the same thing. Sasuke.'

Carefully balancing the groceries in one arm, Sakura pulled her house key out of one of the pockets in her skirt, and slipped it into the lock. She then heard a faint _click! _as she turned the key in its place, and the door slowly swung open. Retrieving her key from the knob and holding the door open with a sandaled foot, Sakura crossed the threshold into her kitchen.

Placing the groceries on the kitchen table, Sakura returned the key to her pocket, and quickly surveyed the kitchen. Still spotless, she noted, since her mother had cleaned it that afternoon. That meant Ryou had been on his best behavior. He probably got a cookie out of it, too.

Smiling to herself, she thought of her little brother as she climbed the stairs to the upper-level of the Haruno household. Ryou was only six, and though quite cute—with short brown hair and big emerald eyes—he was a being bent purely on the destruction of everything around him. He currently held Konoha's record of being able to totally ruin a perfectly clean room in two minutes flat. Yesterday, the target had been the poor and feeble living room.

Reaching the top of the stairs, Sakura continued down a short hallway to the second door to the left, and entered the room. Her room, since ten years ago.

Though rather plain, the room was quite neat, with her bed in the corner nicely made, the starchy white sheets forced to be perfectly smooth. On the entrance's right, was a bookcase that Sakura had used to house many ninjutsu scrolls, not all of which she had yet bothered to learn. On the door's left, was a desk and chair, the surface of the desk only cluttered by a few medical files and a lamp.

Her favorite part of the room, though, was a large window to the left of the bed (which was in the right corner of the room), that gave a nice view of the western sky, and the forest surrounding Konoha. Unfortunately, since it was already dusk, Sakura had missed the sunset.

Glancing at her clock on the wall, Sakura noticed it was already 8:15. Thankfully, she'd already had a meal before she had gone out to get groceries, or she'd have to eat at this late hour for dinner. That, and was already quite tired from a difficult day with Tsunade, so she really had only one thing on her rather large mind.

Sleep.

Quickly changing into a light nightgown from a closet near the window, Sakura laid down on her bed in a fetal position, not bothering to get under the covers. It was late August, after all, and it had been a rather hot day.

Finding a comfortable position, Sakura slowly closed her eyes. However, she found herself unable to immediatly go to sleep. The thought that haunted her mind now was one that did nearly everyday right before she went to sleep.

Her father.

Even though she knew quite well that he had been deceased since she was ten, Sakura could never really let go of the fact that she felt her father _should _be there, tucking her in as he had always done, then finishing it off with a soft kiss on her forehead and a quietly said"Good night, Sakura."

Her father had always been a kind man of few words, but Sakura had always loved him but a bit more than her mother. She might have just grown attached to him in her younger years, but she felt that he was the reason she had become a shinobi, if not the reason she stayed that way.

He had been an incredible shinobi, if only through Sakura's eyes, to return from his missions barely harmed. She had looked up to him for that strength and support he had always brought, making her feel like she was actually worth something. If nothing else, he helped her self-esteem from falling below what is healthy, and for that, Sakura felt almost as though he had saved her life, in a way. Without him by her side in those times of need, she would have most certainly given up on all that she thought was important to fall into complete self-pity.

Her father had taught her to fight for what she believed in. If she thought that she should be the next Hokage, she should fight as hard as she could to achieve that goal. If she felt they should have chicken that night instead of fish, then she was to fight as hard as she could to get her mother to change her mind. Whatever she thought should happen, Sakura was to fight for it until she couldn't fight any longer.

That's how her father had died; fighting for what he believed in. That the people around him should live instead of die. That their lives were worth it. The lives at stake were more important than his own, and he would die to save those other people. It was what he believed.

Sakura smiled sadly to herself. At least he died a happy man, a proud man, a shinobi.

After all, isn't a shinobi someone who fights for what they believe in? Wouldn't that mean that the strength of the shinobi was not truly their physical strength, but rather how strongly they believed in what they fought for?

Then it was true; Sakura actually was a strong shinobi, despite what she told herself. She was fine. She wasn't a horrible excuse for a fighter, she was just unfortunate enough to born into an impressive group of shinobi. She would be alright.

It was among these happy thoughts that Sakura eventually found herself floating off to sleep. A few moments later she gave a shudder in cold as a chill wind entered the room. Wind? How was there _wind _if she was inside?

And why was the window open?


	2. Nightmares

**Clay Petals**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own _Naruto _or its characters, nor am I gaining any profit for putting them in this story. They all belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

**Author's Note: **Here's chapter two, meaning I'm making this a series-challenge. Eh. I guess I've just fallen in love with the pairing.

By the way, the whole part about Sakura's father was **not actually in the plan for that chapter. **In other words, I just added it on at the end, so if it doesn't make sense, I'm sorry. The chapter just felt… short.

Thank you, reviewers! You guys make me want to write more!

_Sakura found herself in a large field. A familiar field. It seemed that she had been here before in her past, but she couldn't remember it now. Almost like an itch she couldn't scratch… a memory she couldn't recall._

_The field, abundant with beautiful flowers, seemed to be inhabited, however. On the opposite side of the sea of dazzling colors seemed to be a group of sitting people, and one—a woman—standing in front of them, and she seemed to be speaking. As Sakura approached the group, however, she quickly recalled where she was._

_She was back in the academy, learning flower arrangement with the other female shinobi in training. This was where she had first met Ino. When the blonde girl had defended her for no reason, as she gained nothing in the end. She had done it selflessly._

_And Sakura had had the nerve to hate her just because of Sasuke._

_Sakura felt something inside her, something that distinctly felt like her heart, seem to drop, as she distinctly saw the scene unfold before her. The same bullies, the same trick with the 'poisonous flower' by her heroine, the same helpless expression she had had before Ino had come to her rescue._

_Sakura began to feel like this was more of a nightmare, as the scenes clearly unfolded before her of every time Ino had stuck up for her, and every time Sasuke had brushed her off as though she was nothing. As if her dream was telling her a message. A very obvious message by this point._

_Boys are not worth friendships! You wasted something perfect you had for something you couldn't get! You selfish little bitch!_

_Sakura found herself backing up against a tree, trying to get away from the scene before her; the one where she had officially become enemies with the blonde. 'But we're friends again!' she tried to scream, 'Why am I seeing all this if we're fine again!'_

_She screamed as loudly as she could, trying to bore the images out of her mind. They weren't going away! They never would! Why oh why did she do all those things! How can I stand myself? How can I stand letting myself live, after all the things I've done to ruin people's lives?_

_Suddenly, the dream world began to quake, as if someone had taken the globe and decided to play catch with it. The world was falling apart, and she couldn't escape!_

"_Help me! Please! I'm sorry, someone, just save me!"_

Sakura sat up with a jolt, and, finding herself still screaming as loudly as she could, quickly shut her mouth, hoping the shriek hadn't woken her mother, as she was an incredibly light sleeper, and hated it when people woke her up. She had broken out in a cold sweat from the dream, and her stomach seemed to be twisting itself in tight knots. However, the most horrific thing was not the nightmare itself, but who seemed to be the person who had helped her escape from it.

"Y-You!" Sakura stuttered, trying to recollect herself in the groggy state in which she found her mind and body, and failing miserably, "What are you doing here!" She pointed an accusing finger at the intruder, and after a few moments flying by, she recognized who it was she was awoken by. The exotic hairstyle was a dead giveaway.

The Akatsuki cloak was also a rather notable feature.

"Me," he responded calmly, in an incredibly deep voice, easily one of his greatest features, "However, since this little 'meeting' isn't really about me, I don't feel like answering that little question at the end. Instead, I'm going to inform you that it's a bit more about you than you'd wish it was, un."

Sakura found herself completely unable to react—not even a nervous giggle for the rather strange noise that he used to end his sentence, or the way he used his fingers to indicate quotes around the word 'meeting' in a rather childish way. She was frozen to the spot, and the cold sweat on her body that was slowly being chilled by wind from the open window was only adding to the frozen effect.

In short, Haruno Sakura was absolutely petrified with fear.

"W-What do you want with me?" Sakura asked quickly, attempting to control her stutter, trying to reach for the kunai she always hid inside her pillowcase in case of such emergencies. He seemed to be able to see every move she made; the slight twitches she referred to as her breathing, the inches her hand made towards the kunai, even the tiny movements her eyes made as they occasionally flickered in the general direction of the door.

It was a horrible feeling, that of complete surveillance. What's worse, it felt like the feeling was all coming from that one hidden eye.

The blond yawned widely, not even bothering to cover his mouth. Sakura, thankfully, did not take this time to stare down into the dark depths of someone's throat, but rather to grab that kunai she had been reaching for, and throw it right at the place between the man's eyes that would kill him in one stroke.

Unfortunately, he dodged it with ease, but due to the slow reaction from the yawn, the kunai kept a few drops of blood, and some of his cheek. In order to know horror, one would have to know a few things about Deidara first. The first thing was that he had a lot of pride. He refused to be out-shone or out-done in any way, and it disturbed him to no end when he had a weaker moment.

One would also have to know that he took his anger out on whichever poor soul had had the nerve to damage his precious pride, in the most savage way possible. Preferably by blowing them to pieces.

**That girl had just had the nerve to cut him. With something as pathetic as a kunai.**

In that moment, Sakura found herself up against the wall behind her bed, a hand to her throat, and Deidara's face but inches away. He licked his lips, and in doing so, had just shaken his head enough to move his hair to the point that it revealed his left eye. Or rather, a strange excuse for an eye.

The thing seemed to be completely mechanical; as she saw it move around the room, focusing on nothing for very long, before finally remaining locked on her lips, the 'zoom-in' function being used to its fullest.

Sakura flinched, and tried desperately to claw his hands off from around her throat. A feeling deep in the pit of her stomach told her that this was not going to end well.

"Originally, I was going to make this meeting completely non-violent, but apparently some of us had other plans," Deidara hissed, his human eye narrowing sharply at the girl in front of him, "Now there are two things you'll have to do to persuade me to let you live, un."

"And they are?" Sakura inquired, trying not to sound shaky, even with her air being slowly cut off, and an S-Class criminal mere centimeters from her face, a dangerous look in his molten gold eye.

'Wait, did he just say that this meeting wouldn't have been violent?' she inquired to herself, 'What a strange thing for an Akatsuki member to suggest...'

'**He's a lying bastard, Sakura! Let's get this punk!**' Inner Sakura raged inside her head, nearly driving Sakura insane with how tempted she was to take the suggestion, and at least attempt to beat up the blond criminal.

"Well, first you'll have to tell me how you beat my partner, Sasori," Deidara said anxiously, as if he'd been wanting to know it for a long time, "and then I'm going to want…

"A kiss, un."

Sakura, acting purely on instincts, reached up while gathering chakra in her hands, and smacked the blond across the face as hard as she possibly could, sending him colliding roughly with the wall. Only a moment later did she recognize the horrible consequences of her actions, as she saw Deidara spit a crimson liquid out of his mouth.

'**Hell yeah!**' Inner Sakura exclaimed, pumping her fist in the air, '**That'll teach that jackass to touch us!**'

"I could've blown up your house, but when all I ask is for a simple kiss of all things, and this is how you react? I'd worry about my priorities if I were you, kunoichi," he said sharply, wiping the remaining blood from the corner of his mouth, "You don't know when they could come back and bite you in the ass, un."

Sakura was thoroughly surprised, however, as he left it at that, and then leapt right out the window towards the woods at the edge of Konoha.

'Since when to the Akatsuki just leave with empty threats?' Sakura thought to herself nervously glancing at the open window. He wasn't going to come back was he? To finish the job? Blow up her home, as he had threatened earlier?

Quickly, Sakura scurried over and closed the window, for all it was worth. He had opened it before, after all, so the only reason she really closed it was for her own sake. It made her less nervous just to have it closed. She shivered, and she couldn't even blame this one on chill air from the window.

She knew at that moment that she wouldn't be able to sleep soundly for at least the next month. She was far too horrified of what could've happened if he hadn't cared so much about the answer to his question that he wouldn't incapacitate her. Even now, she really had now idea why she cared so much about the answer to that question, anyway.

Why did he ask her to kiss him?

The suggestion made no sense to Sakura's rational mind, and it only confused her more about the eccentric blond man who had been in the room but minutes ago. Did he get some sort of sick sense of revenge when he forced her to act romantically towards him just for a slight dent in his pride? Why did he care so much about a simple cut on the cheek, anyway? Did he have some sort of a strange obsession with the way he looked?

Sakura, bothered by these questions, laid down on the bed in a desperate attempt to get some sleep she knew she wouldn't be receiving. She was just too shocked by what had just happened. Even if she closed her eyes…

_A single molten gold eye flew before her vision, its vastness enough to fill up her complete range of vision by simply existing. It stared right at her, and Sakura found herself unable to look away as the eye seemed to shrink, and the outline of a person formed around it. It was him._

_He leaned forward towards her, his body emanating a strange, musky smell, that she couldn't help but strangle her senses and leave her helpless as he leaned close to her face for the second time that night._

"_I want my kiss, un," he said flatly, staring at her parted lips expectantly, as if she was actually going to move to kiss him. As if!_

_However, despite the way she attempted to force her body not to, Sakura found her head trying to move forward, as if the blond could control her body. In her mind, she fought as hard as she could against the strange control, trying as hard as she could to pull her body backwards._

_Sakura was fighting a losing battle._

_The intoxicating scent that seemed to be coming from Deidara's body was completely controlling her mind, body, and soul, making her completely unable to turn away in horror as his lips gently met hers… _

**Another Author's Note: **Ah, this chapter was really different from the first one, for some reason.

Also, this chapter was going to be a lot longer, but I decided I wouldn't make it any longer, because I just can't stand making a character have a 'wake-up sequence' more than once in a chapter. That, and the next part was a bit unrelated to this one, so please try to ignore the messy cut-off.


	3. Thoughts and Reasoning

**Clay Petals**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own _Naruto _or its characters, nor am I gaining any profit for putting them in this story. They all belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

**Author's Note: **This was originally going to be the end of chapter two, but I decided to make it its own chapter because I felt like having the other ending.

Review please! It makes me a happy fanfic author!

Sakura woke up with a start, her bright emerald eyes wide open in shock. Did she just have a dream where she kissed the man who threatened to destroy her home and all she held dear? She shook her head, making her hair fan out in every direction. No, she was just misremembering the dream, is all. It happened all the time.

Glancing at the clock, Sakura found that she had slept a bit late, and would now have to skip some part of her morning 'ritual' in order to get to the hospital on time for Tsunade's medical training. Ugh. She hated skipping one part of her daily activities, as it seemed to throw her off for at least part of the day ahead of her.

Sighing, Sakura decided on not brushing her teeth, as she sat up in bed. Noticing the room seemed to be a little blurry; she rubbed her eyes with the back of her right hand, and proceded to slide off of the mattress and onto her feet.

Giving herself a moment to gain her balance, she looked around the room to see if any items were out of place after last night's intruder. After scanning the room, she found herself satisfied that nothing had been messed with, and proceded to head in the direction of the bathroom across the hall.

If she had searched her room a moment longer, she would've noticed a little note scrawled out on the cover of one of her medical folders on her desk.

After a quick shower, Sakura stepped out of the shower and grabbed a fluffy pink towel from the rack next to the toilet. She dragged the soft material over her hardly curvy body for a moment, before just wrapping the towel under her armpits, and quickly making her way to her room, used nightgown in hand.

As she entered the room and closed the door, she quickly disregarded the towel, and threw the nightgown in the general direction of the hamper. She turned away before she was able to see it fall cleanly in.

Sakura then made her way to her closet, and pulled out some lingerie from the right side, and quickly pulling them on, leaving her shameful body visible for the shortest amount of time possible.

If there was one thing Sakura was unhappy to have, it was her body. It was small and underdeveloped, even when she had reached such an age as fifteen. Whenever she looked in the mirror, it occurred to her that her butt was too small, her chest was too flat, her shoulders were too wide… anything that she could dislike about her body, she did. Because of this, she felt uncomfortable whenever she went to a hot spring with Ino, or if she was ever undressed in front of anyone.

It seemed as though her own body was trying to embarrass her.

Sakura furrowed her brows, and stepped over to the mirror that was on the left of the closet she had just opened. Examining herself in the mirror, she looked at herself from all angles. Yup. Still flat.

With an unhappy sigh, Sakura turned away from the looking glass, and returned to the closet to find some clothes to wear. Not that it really mattered, as all of her clothes looked basically the same, but it mattered to her whether or not the skirt had pockets, and whether or not the shirt had a zipper.

Finally deciding on a black sleeveless shirt with a zipper and a short, tan skirt without pockets, Sakura grabbed her gloves from a drawer in the desk, and picked up the towel. Nicely placing it on the rack in the bathroom where the towel belonged, she then continued down the stairs to the lower level.

As she reached the kitchen, Sakura found that her mother had already finished making breakfast, and there were two plates stuffed full of food on either end of the table. However, as Sakura looked at the place in front of her cushion, she was slightly disappointed to only see a bowl of instant ramen.

With a sigh, she sat down in kneeled down in front of the bowl, and picked up her chopsticks. She hated having ramen for breakfast. As a matter of fact, she hated ramen altogether, and wondered why anyone would eat such a thing.

'Well, I suppose I can eat it quickly so I get to the hospital on time,' she thought to herself, idly slurping her ramen, 'it's just… I really wish that I could stay home and have breakfast like a family with Mother and Ryou. That, and Mother's food is usually quite delicious.'

Upon finishing her ramen, Sakura picked up the bowl and placed it gently in the sink, careful not to shatter its delicate glass. She'd broken one of her Mother's bowls but once before, and it was not a process she had any desire to repeat.

After making sure that the fragile glass hadn't a single chip on its surface, Sakura made her way towards the door, and upon opening it, left her home on the way to the hospital.

As she walked along the nearly empty dirt road, Sakura began to think again about her strange dream. It puzzled her completely and totally, every suggestion she made within her mind, brought back down again by the exact same evidence.

She'd kinda wanted to.

No matter how much she tried to deny it, Sakura had remained unable to have any relationships with the boys her age in the village, and it was really starting to get to her. Though she was mentally set for anything, it still didn't hurt to have a little support. Especially with her father gone, and the only male really in her life her brother…

No, that was no excuse. He's a horrible man, an S-Class criminal, member of the organization Akatsuki, the same as Sasuke's brother! You can't blame sexual tension for wanting to even a little, for wanting something as completely forbidden and horrible as that.

As Sakura looked up, she realized that she had arrived at the Konoha hospital. It wasn't exactly a grand spectacle; it was plain white with a hint of red every now and then, with the large kanji for 'hospital' written above the door. However, Konoha being a shinobi village, it was rather large.

Thoughts of her dream fled her mind, as Sakura stepped through the doors in front of her, and scurried up a long flight of stairs to her left. These were the steps that led directly to the emergency rooms; the places where Sakura, Shizune, and other top medics worked. Tsunade also worked there sometimes, but only when she wasn't either drunk, doing her Hokage duties, or on a vacation.

This didn't exactly leave much time for the hospital.

However, as Sakura opened the door to the second floor, she was surprised to see Tsunade tending to a patient that appeared to have his stomach ripped open. It was a miracle already that he was alive with that kind of injury, it would be even more of a miracle if he would be able to live throughout the extensive surgery.

After cleansing her hands, pulling on rubber gloves, and throwing an apron overtop or her clothes, Sakura set to work on a patient next to the Hokage's disemboweled one.

This new patient was a woman with short black hair and tan skin, and it seemed that she was missing an arm. 'It's a clean cut, so probably with a sword,' Sakura thought, 'Strange. Not many shinobi fight with swords.'

As Sakura glanced over to a nearby medical table, she noticed the gory bleeding arm sitting atop it, soaking the table's surface. Holding back the urge to vomit, Sakura picked up the arm, and placed it right next to the place it had originally been in. Carefully adjusting it so it would fit on just right, she was just starting to gather chakra in her palms when—

Oh god, why am I remembering the dream _now_?

All the images flashed before her eyes within seconds, everything a distant buzz. The only dominating feature was the single gold eye, and the feeling of being watched from every angle. A burning feeling on her lips just as she felt them touch….

"Sakura! What are you doing!" Tsunade cried, apparently finished with her disemboweled shinobi. Sakura nearly jumped in surprise, but quickly reacted in order to mend her error.

'What did I do wrong, what did I do wrong?' she asked herself quickly going over a mental checklist. Find the patient, find the problem, think of the solution, stem any blood flow immediately…

"I forgot to stem the flow!" Sakura cried, rushing to fix her mistake, but Tsunade was way ahead of her. The patient was already fast asleep, her arm attached again to her body, gauze wrapped around the area of connection between the arm and the rest of the body.

Tsunade looked at her, disappointment lingering in her honey-colored eyes.

"Sakura, that mistake could've caused that woman her _life_, much less her arm! What were you thinking!" Tsunade raged, her voice mounting in anger, "You can't make mistakes like that in a hospital!"

"I know, Tsunade-sama, I just wasn't—"

"You weren't paying attention!" Tsunade yelled at her student, "That's the worst mistake a medic can possibly make!"

"I know, Tsunade-sama, I'm sorry. I won't make the mistake again," Sakura replied, trying to stay calm against Tsunade's fury. It would only get much worse if she reacted as well.

Suddenly, Tsunade was calm. Too calm. She knew this couldn't be a good sign. Tsunade never got this calm after one of her rages, and this could only mean trouble for Sakura.

"Sakura, I think you should take the day off," Tsunade said calmly, before turning to another wounded that had just arrived, "Take some time to collect your thoughts."

Sakura was shocked. Never, in her three years of medical training, had Tsunade asked such a thing of her. 'Well, I've never been so out-of-focus before,' Sakura reminded herself, turning on her heel and heading towards the door, 'I almost killed someone.'

Tossing her apron and gloves in the medical waste bin, Sakura made her way down the steps and out the front door. She calmly made her way back home, but at the last minute, turned on her heel and headed into the woods.

Finally, about a mile into the dense forest, Sakura found a large rock covered in moss, settled by a small stream. 'Perfect,' she thought with content, 'A great place to clear my head.'

Sitting cross-legged on the rock, she rested her elbows on the sides of her knees and her head in her hands, and tried to think. Think about what'd gotten her into this mess in the first place. Think about the cause of that nightmare.

That jerk saying he wanted a kiss.

Why a kiss? Why not something all criminals want, like money, her secret knowledge of the Hokage, or what-not? Or, if he was going down that road, why stop at a kiss? Why not _rape_ her, for goodness sake? Not that she had wanted him to, but why would a criminal care? And, of all things, why ask her permission?

These thoughts and others buzzed through her head, all about the blond criminal. He confused her, in every way possible. More than any man she had ever met. More than Naruto, more than Kakashi, more than even Sasuke.

'Such a mystery,' she thought, 'Such an annoying mystery.'

She chuckled quietly to herself.

'He's the reason I got into this mess with Tsunade, and I still can't keep my mind off him.'


End file.
